Melbourne Water

Andrea Brown
Landowner, Main Creek, Mornington Peninsula
Andrea operates the Golden Valley Lodge on the Main Creek near Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula. The 30 hectare property has over 1.3km of stream frontage. Andrea has been managing the land, including heavy infestations of weeds Hawthorn and Pittosporum for 10 years. Andrea’s goal is to provide visiting children with an opportunity to learn about the natural environment .. "to give the children an understanding and feeling of respect for our waterways so that will carry into adult life".

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Andrew Allen
Integrated Water Management
Andrew Allen is a Strategic Water Engineer at Manningham City Council and President of the Stormwater Industry Association of Victoria. With the support of Melbourne Water’s Living Rivers Stormwater Program, he’s running training sessions for his colleagues to encourage and support water sensitive urban design. "We can put in a swale, a raingarden or a filter strip - something that’s going to lessen the impact from the run off from our works...it’s not that hard. There is support out there."

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Barry Cartledge and David Leggo
Melbourne
David and Barry work on the maintenance of waterways and drains, both stormwater and sewerage. They constantly balance the needs of all interested parties, including community groups, councils and individuals. Barry supervised the mechanical and electrical staff at the Thompson Dam during its construction in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s and Dave has been through a number of different roles at Melbourne Water, e.g. capital and project management. Barry loves fishing and recreational sports on the Bay and Dave spends every spare minute surfing, waterskiing, wakeboarding, kayaking ... "anything to do with water". They’d both like to see less rubbish and more education around healthy waterways and the fact that each person can really make a difference.

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Bill and Faye Loughridge
Landowners & Farmers, Nyora
Bill and Faye have been doing landcare work on their farm in Nyora for years ..."mainly fencing to keep the cows out of the creeks". They’ve since revegetated areas and refenced the laneways to protect remnant trees and to give the cows a place for shade. They have a wet swampy area that they’ve revegetated and are keeping an eye on. Bill thinks it’s important to get on with creek frontage management and encourage all farmers, no matter what size the farm, to do their bit... "to look after the whole length of the river for the betterment of the community".

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Brian Taylor
Landowner, Deep Creek, Maribyrnong Catchment
Brian Taylor owns a 300-acre dairy farm in the Upper Maribyrnong catchment, with Deep Creek flowing through it. Over the past five years he and his family have been restoring the natural ecosystem along the creek. This has been carried out in conjunction with landowners up and down the creek who have also been "doing their bit" to improve the quality of the water running through their land. "The kids enjoy the creek and the river and the waterlife so much, they’re down there fishing and camping ..".

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Bronwyn South
Orchardist and Arthurs Creek Landcare Group
Bronwyn South is a member of the Arthurs Creek Landcare Group and has an apple and pear orchard. Her orchard has 8 kilometres of creek frontage, which she believes she has an obligation to exercise stewardship over. "It’s a lot of work and it takes persistence and the belief that the natural environment is the correct environment for the areas that aren’t being farmed or under agriculture". Bronwyn would like to see foxes and other feral animals, especially cats removed from the waterways. She’d also like to see Australians embrace and restore the Australia landscape.

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Christine Hughes
Melbourne Water
Christine Hughes is an environmental flow planner for Melbourne Water and loves to exercise - running along rivers and creeks and swimming in the Bay - "healthy rivers, healthy waterways, healthy bays, healthy me!" For the first time, through the State Government’s Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy, the environment has its own legal entitlement to water. Christine and her team are constantly working with expert scientists, community groups and private diverters to understand how much water our river systems need to be environmentally healthy and working towards balancing everyone’s needs.

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David Barr
Friends of Wilson Reserve and Waterwatch Volunteer
David Barr has been a member of Friends of Wilsons Reserve for 8 years. The group was originally established to weed Wilsons Reserve but has evolved since then. David is involved with planting as well as weeding and also water sampling, which he has been doing for 5 years, with Waterwatch. He has also produce a report about the water quality at Wilsons Reserve. The Reserve includes 2 billabongs which are fed by stormwater drains and mostly polluted. "It would be good to see the public able to contain its rubbish so it doesn’t get into these stormwater systems .. which carry it into the billabongs."

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David Taylor
Melbourne Water
With many years of experience in waterway management planning at Melbourne Water, waterways are an important part of David Taylor’s life. "While the Plenty River has a lot going for it, the water quality is not fantastic. There are also major infestations of invasive weeds that need to be controlled ... a good example of the issues facing many of our urban creeks".

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Eddie Tsyrlin
Melbourne Water
Eddie is a "Mad Scientist at Melbourne Water" who has always played with little critters whether terrestrial or aquatic. He loves seeing things improve, and finding unusual things. Eddie and co conspirator at Melbourne Water Rhys Coleman, found a new population of the endangered flightless stonefly. Merri Creek is a meaningful and inspiring spot for Eddie. He started his work at Merri Creek with Waterwatch and the Merri Creek Management Committee. Galada Tamboore, is a particularly important spot and an "oasis among environs of Merri Creek".

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Eric Bullemore
Landowner, Little River
Eric Bullemore owns a 700-acre property on the Little River and in 2000, started ‘environmental’ works. The banks of the river were so infested with weeds, such as the Tiger Pear and Serrated Tussock, that a lot of the land was inaccessible and unusable. Water flow in Little River is low, but when it rains, the floodwaters breathe new life into the waterway. It’s these flood events and the flourish of activity that inspire Eric to keep working to improve Little River. His dream for the future is to see the river back to full flow and full health.

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Graham Daff
Melbourne Water
Graham Daff has worked at Melbourne Water for 36 years. Graham works with developers and consultants to ensure properties have adequate drainage. "The best part is integrating the drainage infrastructure- the rivers, creeks, wetlands, retarding basins, into the subdivisions, as part of the open space so they make more liveable subdivisions and more people can enjoy and relate to the water features." His local Sweetwater Creek is a refuge in an urban environment and a "great spot to get away from it all".

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Jan Smith
Melbourne Water
Jan Smith grew up on a bush block and has always loved the natural environment. "Rivers are a thread of life, through the landscape, through our culture. They are very evocative in the landscape and very fulfilling places spiritually." Jan Smith and her team at Melbourne Water help rural land owners with privately owned creek frontage look after their waterways in a sustainable manner. Helping them with revegetation, weed control and waterway fencing to keep stock and resulting pollution out of waterways.

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Jim Sanson
Newham and District Landcare Group, Upper Maribyrnong Catchment
Jim Sanson from the Newham Deep Creek Landcare group has been gathering support and encouraging enthusiasm from fellow landholders to help improve the condition of Deep Creek, in the Upper Maribyrnong Catchment. "I really hope that the enthusiasm shown by the Landcare Group and the community will be maintained so that the Newham Deep Creek continues to receive the attention it deserves for years to come," Jim said. Melbourne Water has contributed funding for his project as well as providing expert guidance on how to remove the huge willows that were choking the stream channel.

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Jim White
Vineyard Manager, Domaine Chandon
Jim is the Vineyard Manager at Domain Chandon and looks after 100 acres of vineyard and 180 acres of floodplains. With both Yarra River and Yeringberg Creek frontage. His family has been in the grape growing business for 130 years and Jim "always looks at the state of the environment and striking a balance between agricultural production and maintaining the altered, but natural environment as much as possible". He relies on the river and is very conscious of protecting his own patch for those up and downstream. He’d like to see a return to the natural flooding regime of the past and to see more native animals about.

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John Forrester
Werribee River Association, Werribee Waterways Management Committee, Grow West and Melbourne Water's Waterways Advisory Committee
John Forrester is a busy man for waterways. His passion and involvement in the Werribee River, in particular, is clear. John believes that people "need wild places like this’ for their well being. "People need to understand that looking after the river isn’t just an environmental issue; it’s also about health - of plants, wildlife and people."
Maintenance of waterways, like maintenance of anything, is also very important.

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Julia Vanderoord
Melbourne Waterwatch
Julia Vanderood is the Waterwatch Coordinator in the North East Region of Melbourne. She works with lots of different groups: schools, community groups, Neighbourhood Watch... and says she’s "learnt heaps from people". A big part of the job is raising awareness .. collecting information on our waterways... and working in partnerships such as the Darebin Creek Management Committee.

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Kate Kinsella
Melbourne Water
Kate Kinsella has been working at Melbourne Water for 10 years. She and her team work with developers and councils to ensure properties are protected from flooding and meet best practice standards for stormwater quality. Kate was involved in a project that introduced planning controls to 100,000 flood affected properties in the Melbourne Region. "This project has since played a crucial role in Melbourne Water’s ability to regulate development in floodplains". A local from Mordialloc, Kate remembers riding her horse along the Creek with her sister as a kid.

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Keith Boniface
Melbourne Water
Keith Boniface enjoys the work he’s doing now more than ever. Starting as a surveyer at the Dandenong Valley Authority more than 30 years ago, he now runs the Investigations and Surveys section at Melbourne Water. "In the past we did a lot of concrete channels and pipes ... and now we’re really fitting in with the natural environment...evolving with society’s expectations ... and creating great recreational spaces and environmental features".

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Leo Koelewyn
Coolwyn Nurseries
Leo Koelewyn and his family have been in the nursery business since 1952. Leo is a keen advocate of off-stream water storages and has built his own dam which he says, triples the amount of water available. For every one litre of water used on the property, he gets almost 3 litres back. "If we capture water out of the sky or divert it from the creek, it’s our responsibility as nurserymen, to really use it wisely."

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Lisa and Murray Huitson
Landowners and Dairy Farmers, Bass River
Lisa and Murray Huitson own and run a dairy farm on the Bass River. The river was heavily infested with willows and five years on, the weeds and willows have been replaced with 15 native species including gum trees, dogwood and swamp paper bark, and they have erected five kilometres of fencing. Although their initial reason for doing the work was to help keep their stock out of the creek (and the willows), they can now see the broader benefits. "The birds have returned, streamflows have improved and the water is much clearer than it was." With the help of the West Gippsland CMA and Bass Coast Landcare Network, the Huitsons have created a buffer strip (to filter pollution) between their farmland and the river.

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Little Stringybark Creek Project
Dr Chris Walsh and Sharyn RossRakesh
Dr Chris Walsh is a Stream Ecologist at Melbourne University and Sharyn RossRakesh is the Team Leader Catchment Strategies at Melbourne Water. They are working on a joint long term monitoring project on the Little Stringybark Creek. They’re hoping this project will be the first in the world to demonstrate that "if you do take care of the catchment and the stormwater that runs off it, you can manage the stormwater flow that goes into the stream, you can actually protect and restore the stream."

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Moragh Mackay and Jodie Gager
Bass Coast Landcare Network
Moragh MacKay and Jodie Gager are Landcare Facilitators for the Bass Valley Landcare Group, which is part of the broader Bass Coast Landcare Network. The group aims to achieve long-term environmental improvement goals for the catchment, focusing on land management and waterways. Moragh & Jodie work closely with individual landholders and community groups to support ongoing land management improvements.

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Norm Mckinley
Friends of Chinamans Creek, Mornington Peninsula
Norman McKinley is the Secretary of the Friends of Chinaman’s Creek, near Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula. The group of around eight members, has been dedicated to improving the creek for nearly 10 years and Norman’s interest in the area stems from his passion for wildlife and goal to save the threatened Swamp Skink.
Norman has also has been working to save the Tootgarook Swamp and started the Friends of Tootgarook Wetlands. The swamp is important for migratory birds, particularly Snipe from Japan He has also been involved with the local primary school for about 10 years, developing the wetlands and involving the children in water monitoring, bird watching and building a bird hide.

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Raingardens
St. Brigid’s Primary School
The Raingardens in Schools Program began at Richmond Primary School in June 2006. Since then 20 raingardens have been built in schools across the lower Yarra region. Toby Prosser and Emilie Baer of Melbourne Water show the kids at St. Brigid’s Primary School in Balwyn that there’s something they can do, and it’s pretty easy, to help make the most of the rain that falls at their schools. "When we get older, we can say to people, I planted that tree there."

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Tony Herwith
Shire of Melton
Tony Herwith is a Land Information Officer at Melton Shire Council. In his role he visits approximately 1200 properties a year to encourage landowners to undertake weed control and revegetation. Visiting people on their property, he helps them identify which plants are weeds and which plants are ecologically important. Tony and the community groups in the area have made good use of a number of environmental improvement grants available, including those from Council and Melbourne Water . The Melbourne Water funding has been used for fencing, weed control and revegetation.

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Tony Johnson
Villawood Properties
Tony Johnson is the Executive Director of Villawood Properties. He is very satisfied with Koolamara Waters, the residential estate in Ferntree Gully. The estate is leading the way in environmental design and the wetlands, designed with Melbourne Water and the Australian Platypus Conservancy, help provide a new home for the platypus that travel there via rock rifles from Monbulk Creek.

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Trees for Little Bourke Street
David White and Greg Mahoney
David White, Manager of Paddy Palin and Greg Mahoney, President of the Hardware Precinct Association (and Director of Mahoneys Galleries in Hardware Lane), have received their Christmas wish; street trees along their section of Little Bourke St. Watered by the stormwater in the drains, the trees add to the beauty of the street while also being filters of the rubbish and nutrients that would otherwise drain to the River. "It’s a lovely slope that goes up, and with that beautiful strip of green, absolutely dresses the entire place up."

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Waterwatch
Sunshine North Primary School
Waterwatch Coordinator Rhys Collins works with Sunshine North Primary School to raise awareness of the Kororoit Creek and the issues in the catchment that are impacting on the Creek. He plans to extend the Waterwatch education program to other schools in the Kororoit Creek catchment.

Seaford North Primary School
Waterwatch Coordinator Amy Paraman loves working with the kids. Here at Seaford North Primary School the kids are learning frog calls, for example, the Stripped Marsh frog, the Pobblebonk frog. The school will be regular monitors of the Seaford wetlands, which has Ramsar listing and their information will be very useful to the local council.

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Zoe Thompson
Brimbank City Council
Zoe Thompson is the Conservation Coordinator at Brimbank City Council. She is currently working with Friends of Organ Pipes, Friends of Maribyrnong Valley, Melbourne Water, and local businesses through Landcare Australia to manage Sydenham Park. At the confluence of Jackson’s Creek and Deep Creek, the site is an important and exciting site for the Council and Community who will enjoy it in the future. "Awareness and understanding by landholders ... about how important rocky outcrops are - how important the valley is ... and a change in mentality from the creek being a drain to it being a creek again".

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